Thailand confident in solving IUU Fishing

BANGKOK, May 3 (TNA) - The Thai government is confident that the country should be relinquished the "yellow card" having been issued by the European Union (EU) since last year, as considerable progress has been made to solve the Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) Fishing. Vice Admiral Jumpol Lumpiganon, Deputy Chief-of-Staff of the Royal Thai Navy, in his capacity as the Spokesman of the government's Command Centre for Combating Illegal Fishing (CCCIF), expressed the optimism during his special interview with TNA on May 3. Vice Admiral Jumpol told TNA that a recent meeting, chaired by Thai Agriculture and Cooperatives Minister General Chatchai Sarikulya, agreed to assign the Fisheries Department, to be the key government agency to handle the IUU Fishing issues. Besides, 53 out of 91 organic laws have been promulgated so far, after a Royal Decree on Fishery was issued in late 2015. Vice Admiral Jumpol noted that the Fisheries Department is speeding up drafting the remaining organic laws and they should become clear around the middle of this month. According to the CCCIF spokesman, the Thai government has also solve 40 out of 65 IUU Fishing issues suggested by EU, while the remaining issues are expected to be completed by the end of this year. The CCCIF spokesman noted that he plans to fly to Brussels later this month to consult with the European Commission and he was confident that EU would revoke its "yellow card" imposed on Thailand because the Kingdom has solved the issues in line with international standards. EU has imposed the "yellow card" on Thailand since April 2015 due to the IUU Fishing and an EU team is expected to conduct a next evaluation on Thailand’s status in mid-2016. (TNA)